ZCW Reviews

  Dreamscape Journey-A Promesa Review Its been a bit of extended break for me with a bunch of school catching up with me as of late, but I figured now was a better time than any to come back and get a new review out again! Following the release of a massive, nearly 1000 game bundle from itch.io I was able to give Promesa a shot for the first time for a game I likely would not have had to have the chance to play otherwise. With all that in mind, let's take a trip through this interactive art piece and see what it has to offer.  Walking Through Dreams In the simplest terms possible, Promesa is a game where you walk through dreamlike areas based on Italian and Argentinian architecture/locations as you engage in a conversation between a grandparent and grandson. In fact, the dev of Promesa even explained how for this game he spoke with his own grandfather for inspiration and based portions of the game around those conversations.  I've played a surprisingly high number of thes...

  Digging in to New Genres-A Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon Review Over my years of playing video games I have never shied away from my love for platformers, and, as an extension, of Yacht Club Games for their blockbuster labor of love in Shovel Knight. In my eager wait for the delayed Shovel Knight Dig coming out sometime in the future I decided to check out their most recent title in a puzzle spinoff called Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Does it inspire to the extent of all their prior titles or does it come up a tile short? Fitting in new mechanics Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is a mash-up of a roguelike game and a typical puzzle game, and it balances the two to some positives and some negatives. On terms of general gameplay, Pocket Dungeon is a falling blocks puzzler akin to a puyo puyo game where you can rack up large chains. It is a bit of a unique take on these titles, but that's about as apt a comparison I can make for it. You'll move around a grid and pick and choose wher...

A Pendulum of Platforming-A Grapple Dog Review After viewing its trailer some time ago I was immediately intrigued with Medallion Games' Grapple Dog due to its seemingly simple artstyle and mechanics. From then I followed the game on and off until it magically appeared on my steam frontpage, as many of these reviews tend to play out, and gave it a shot. So, with all that in mind, does Grapple Dog deliver on it's simple premise or does it fail to accomplish even the basics? Smooth and Simple Grapple Dog is a 2D platformer through and through, and with that it falls into place with the rest of the genre in a standardized manner. There are various collectables from gems to fruit (that if you collect enough of in a level you get more gems) to even little medallions that unlock extra levels. As for your base abilities you can jump, dive bomb, and sprint in a similar style to mario 3 in which you build up to your max speed by moving continuously for a bit. It's all illustrated in...

  Skateboarding Spectacle-OlliOlli World Following the first two entries of the OlliOlli series I've kept an eye on Roll7's development of the next addition to this enjoyable set of games. Does this entry do enough to differentiate and innovate, or is it more of a small step like the jump from OlliOlli 1 to 2? Shifting Dimensions OlliOlli World's main innovation is a shift from straight 2d graphics to 3d models in a 2.5d style of gameplay. With this comes its own set of corresponding gameplay innovations, like quarter pipes that allow you to shift into the background. This, alongside the added wallride and spin tricks add a much needed dimension to gameplay that allows for a higher level of mastery than before. It can be a bit overwhelming when you try to put it all together, but each mechanic is introduced gradually throughout the playthrough to keep you sane.  But these additions don't remove the already solid foundation that the first two titles set up. You'll st...

  Spooky yet Scintillating-A Dusk Review Every so often a video will pop up in my online feed about the importance of the old doom and quake games and how they paved the way for the future of the fps genre. Such videos tend to inspire me to go and check out some of those classic titles, and, while they can be fun for a bit, they all eventually have a level or two of truly awful maze like levels with no sense of direction. It leaves a sour note on titles that have legitimately cool and inspired weapons to have these poorly created dungeon-labyrinths of level design.  What Dusk accomplishes for me is a title that encourages careful exploration and proper old school gunplay without the confusion or frustration. This is a game that has those keycards that would make you scream if this was the 90s, but in a shocking turn of events creates levels that naturally guide you through them and never lead you astray.   The main point I want to draw home here is that Dusk is the a...

  A Modern Combat Marvel-A DOOM (2016) Review I'll admit I'm a bit late to the hype train here, but I was very fascinated with the hype around id software's revival of the classic doom series considering how rough around the edges those older titles tend to be. So how exactly did they pull it off and what other improvements were made to come out with such a splash hit?  Creating Solutions The main issue that doom sought to solve within modern fps games is the player's innate playstyle to hide behind covers and play away from danger. The solution, while genius, is actually very simple! The glory kill system allows the player to perform special melee attacks on weakened enemies that causes them to drop health and grants a few moments of invincibility. Combat encounters are careful dances of weaving around projectiles but staying close enough to perform glory kills and keep the health up (you can also obtain a rune later on that allows for enemies to drop health and armor ...

  Teeming with Modernity-A Monster Hunter Rise Review Having previously merely tolerated Capcom's legacy entries in the series, I hadn't really kept an eye out for Monster Hunter games when they release. That is, until Monster Hunter World broke out of the series long standing hold of outright frustrating and dated mechanics to finally revitalize the series for a modern audience. However, my excitement was momentarily postponed when the initial Nintendo Switch version of Rise released, as it struggled to perform with even low quality textures on the Switch's dated chip set. Following a recent release on Steam on January 12th I was finally able to experience this game as smoothly as possible, so just how does it deliver on the foundation MH: World set down? Continuing to Refine Monster Hunter is inheritably a grindy formula which is not necessarily what I take issue with, but always these games have around 3-4 hours of blatant padding at the start where you gather herbs or f...

A Dimensional Dance-A Solar Ash Review When I think of the term "indie game" there are a very choice selection of titles that immediately come to mind, and Heart Machine's first title Hyper Light Drifter is definitely one of them. With that said, when the company announced they'd be making a 3D platformer as the next project they were working on I waited with eager expectations for another gem. As it quietly released onto the Epic Games Store and PlayStation systems I was admittedly curious as to why no buzz was surrounding the game. With a dev team as touted in my mind as the ones at Heart Machine, what exactly is going on with their new title Solar Ash? Beauty and the Boredom In terms of gameplay, Solar Ash is a very smooth experience. It's clear a lot of work went in to creating an engine conducive to proper movement and control. Hitting enemies with your sword feels pretty satisfying with a three hit flourish, and the way you skate across levels feels very pol...

   A Swarm of Syllables and Bullets-A Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo Review Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo, which I'm referring to as SGS from now on, is a remastering of a 2015 shoot em up game of the same name (minus the EX Turbo fanfare) which aims to fully modernize its formula and keep it interesting (it should be noted that this release also comes with the original bundled in, which was surprisingly good in of itself). With that in mind, did Synset set the high bar held by games published through New Blood Interactive or were they just a middling starting point for them? Polishing up the Genre SGS is standard fare for bullet hell games, but with a few twists that I really liked. The content at hand here is both deeply familiar for fans of the genre but presented in a fashion that allows for new players to hop in and enjoy it as well.  Starting with the basics, everything you can expect from this genre is here with a few extras. You'll dodge screenfuls of projectiles...

  Arcade Baseball Amusement-A Super mega Baseball 3 Review When it comes to sports games, I'm far more engrossed with the more arcade style types as opposed to the more realistic sims. What Super Mega Baseball 3 should provide is another great arcade sports game that is fun to pick up and play at your leisure, so does it succeed at that goal? Similar Slugging The gameplay of SMB3 is nearly identical to the second game minus a few visual tweaks and improvements that hardly change the "feel" of the game. I will say, as someone who played the second game a ton, there really aren't enough changes and additions here to really justify that $45 price tag nor justify calling it a sequel. However, I'd like to go over the one area of truly additional content: the highly touted franchise mode.  This is certainly the most interesting portion of the game, where you essentially play the season mode with a bunch of additional options to fine tune your team. You can handle the pl...

  Hellishly Entrancing-A Demon Turf Review Before we get into this one, I just wanted to take some time here at the start to thank any regular readers here at this little review site. Today marks the 50th (WOW) piece I've written on this blog and it is just so great to share my thoughts with you all each week. Here's to the next 50!  Demon Turf is another installment in the "games I saw early in development that I forget about then just randomly see get released" category of indie titles. This linear 3D platformer occupies one of my favorite genres in all of gaming, so let's look into its trenches and see what it beholds.  Focused on Fun Demon Turf is a prime example as to why I far prefer the more focused moment-to-moment gameplay of linear games to their more sprawling non-linear counterparts. What Demon Turf accomplishes in its runtime far surpasses any of the monolithic 50+ hour collect-a-thons that exist out there with their troves of backtracking and empty w...